The move has fueled speculation that MPAA attorneys may be attempting to build a case against individual users, however the organization has toldWired that it is only considering the possibility of litigation against Megaupload itself "or various intermediaries involved in Megaupload's operation."

The MPAA is asking Carpathia to preserve all information related to the content that was uploaded to Megaupload, downloaded from the servers, "and the Megaupload users who uploaded or downloaded those files."

Carpathia is said to be spending $9,000 each day to preserve the data, while Megaupload claims it cannot pay the server host until the government unfreezes at least part of its assets. The file sharing company is also fighting for the data to be retained for its own criminal defense against charges of copyright infringement and racketeering, among others. Separately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued in favor of keeping the data to prevent legitimate users from losing content.